Visions of Jude

Visions of Jude, by Daniel Poliquin (Douglas & McIntyre) has great promise: what more could we ask for but a serious novel about an Arctic explorer? The story of Jude the explorer (somewhat reminiscent of V. Steffanson, although Jude doesn't order a half-pound of butter whenever he eats in a restaurant—too bad) is told through the eyes of the women who love or once loved him. These women are fully imagined, and presented in wonderful prose (rendered expertly into English by Wayne Grady), but their attraction to Jude, who remains a cardboard figure and a real all-around dud, is utterly unconvincing.